"What?" Willow asked breathlessly after a long moment's silence as she and Tara's faces' fell and their grip on one another's hands tightened.

"There's a slight problem with your baby. It has an irregular heart murmur." The doctor said bluntly.

"Will it be ok?" Tara asked, her concern growing as her maternal instincts set in.

"Yes. Oh yes, it should be fine. This is no one's fault. Just something that sometimes happens. Only a minor ventricular septal defect. It's rather small, luckily, so it should heal on it's own."

Tara and Willow let out a sigh of relief.

"We'll monitor it though, and Tara, I recommend you take it easy ok?"

Tara nodded.

"I'll give you both a moment to process all this." The doctor said, closing the door as she left the room.

Immediately, Willow's head fell into Tara's lap as a flood of tears fell from her eyes. "I'm sorry Baby." She cried. "This is all my fault. I promised I'd take care of you. You haven't even come yet, and already I've failed. I'm sorry Baby, I'm so sorry." She cried, kissing the top of Tara's now more prominent bump.

"Willow, Baby." Tara said gently, stroking her wife's red hair. She lifted her chin with a finger so Willow had to look at her. "Honey, remember what the doctor said? It's nobody's fault. It's minor, it should heal on it's own."

"But I promised." Willow blubbered as a fresh round of tears fell. "I promised I'd take care of you, and the baby. And now something's wrong with it and I failed. It's not even here yet and I've failed already. If I'm this bad a mother now, when it's not even here yet, what am I going to be like when it gets here?"

"Honey." Tara whispered, pressing their lips together, kissing her wife softly. "You haven't failed, Baby, you've taken great care of both of us. This is no one's fault, just something that happens sometimes."

"But why to us? We've been through so much already."

"Exactly." Tara smiled, meeting Willow's lips again. "Sweetie, with every hardship we get through, we get stronger don't we? It's you and me, together. This is just another one of those times, and we'll get through it, the three of us." Tara tightened her grip on Willow's hand, rubbing her belly with her other hand. "We always do, don't we?"

Willow nodded. "I guess. I still feel like I've failed it though."

"Hey Sweetie, feel this." Tara guided Willow's hand to her belly where the baby was kicking. "The baby still loves you Willow. We both do. You haven't failed us. Not at all. It's just another one of those things. We'll get through it. But you have to promise me something."

"Anything Baby." Willow said, meeting Tara's eyes with her own emerald ones.

"Don't leave us, ok? I want our baby to know who her mother is." Tara said, her eyes filling with tears. "I couldn't do this without you. It would break my heart."

"I wouldn't ever dream of it Baby." Willow promised, kissing Tara gently. "That time I almost lost you, it killed me and ever since I've never wanted to be without you."

"Good. I love you too much to let you go Willow." Tara said, a stray tear falling from her eyes.

"Like you said, honey." Willow smiled, squeezing Tara's hand reassuringly. "We're in this together. I promise, I'm not going anywhere, and neither's our baby. Are you gorgeous?" Willow said, smiling at Tara's baby bump. She had her answer when the baby kicked.

"See Baby? We're going to be a little family. The three of us."

"Don't forget Holly." Tara said.

"Of course not Baby. Holly, Buffy, Xander, everyone else. They're all our family, but now, we're branching out a little. We're starting a family of our own."

Tara nodded, smiling as her tears disappeared and Willow met her lips.